Interested in interning or working in Washington, DC? Want to work in a field related to Korea or East Asia? Curious about the DC thinktank scene?
Join Korea Economic Institute Vice President Mark Tokola, Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs Dr. Clint Work, and KEI Operations Manager Mai Pressley on Wednesday, March 27 from 1-2:30pm in Thomson 317 for a drop-in career advising session.
All UW students are welcome. Light refreshments will be provided.
Mark Tokola is Vice President of the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, DC. He retired as a U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor in September 2014. His last posting was as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at US Embassy London. Previously he had served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassies in Seoul, Republic of Korea; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and, Reykjavik, Iceland. Among his other postings were two tours at the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at Embassy London, and Economic Counselor at US Embassy The Hague. He also served as Director of the Iraq Transition Assistance Office (ITAO) in Baghdad from 2007-2008. Mr Tokola received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on implementing the Dayton Peace Accords while serving as Political Counselor in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1997-1999. He holds a BA in International Relations from Pomona College in Claremont, California, and an LL.M. in European Community Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Tokola serves on the Board of Governors of DACOR: An Organization of Foreign Affairs Professionals, and on the Board of Trustees of the Bacon House Foundation.
Dr. Clint Work is a Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). In addition to his work on KEI’s publications and publication-related programs, Clint leads KEI’s University Outreach and conducts research, writing, and public engagement focused on US-Korea relations. Before joining KEI, Clint served as a Fellow in the Henry L. Stimson Center’s 38 North Program from 2020-2022, where he focused on issues related to the US-ROK alliance transformation, led Congressional engagement about peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, and organized and moderated a military working group centered on North Korea’s evolving “checkerboard” threat. He also worked with a broad range of universities and state and local organizations throughout the country to foster public engagement on US-Korea relations. Prior to joining Stimson, Dr. Work was an assistant professor at the University of Utah’s Asia Campus in South Korea and the regular foreign policy writer for The Diplomat Magazine’s Koreas page. He holds a Doctorate in International Studies from the University of Washington and a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and his work focuses on the Korean Peninsula, US-Korean relations, East Asia, and US foreign policy. He is currently writing on the history and evolution of the US force presence on the Korean Peninsula and the US-ROK alliance transformation in the post-Cold War era. In addition to his academic publications, he has written extensively for popular media, including the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Diplomat Magazine, The National Interest, War on the Rocks, 38 North, and Sino-NK. He regularly provides commentary to U.S. and foreign media outlets, such as The Economist, Time Magazine, NPR, and Arirang News.
Mai Anna Pressley is the Operations Manager at the Korea Economic Institute of America. She leads the Institute’s response to the pandemic and coordinates visits by policymakers and researchers from outside Washington, D.C. She also provides editorial assistance to KEI’s weekly newsletter Korea View. Areas of interest for Mai include South Korean history, politics and popular culture, and North Korean human rights. Her writing has been published in the Diplomat Magazine. Prior to joining KEI in August 2021, she served as the Executive Assistant to the CEO at Community Restoration Centers, Inc. of Stark County, OH. There she provided administrative assistance to the CEO and headed the organization’s pandemic response team. She is also a freelance editor and provides editing and proofreading services to a base of international clients. Mai Anna graduated from Kent State University in 2012 with a B.A. in International Relations. During her undergraduate studies, she studied abroad in South Korea. Returning to the country to both teach English and pursue a graduate degree, she received a Master’s Degree in International Studies with a focus on East Asia from Korea University’s Graduate School of International Studies in 2017.